Multiple files may be written to a compact disc (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD) as a single image file (e.g., according to the ISO 9660 standard). These single image files are commonly used on installation disks (e.g., for operating systems and application software). The single image file contains all of the data files, executable files, etc., for installing the software on a computer system. The location of each individual file is specified according to a location or offset on the CD or DVD disk. Therefore, the user typically cannot access the contents of an image file from a computer hard disk drive by simply copying the image file to the hard disk drive. Instead, the contents of the image file must be accessed from the CD or DVD disk itself via a CD or DVD drive.
Software is available that allows users to copy image files to a hard disk drive and then write the image files to another CD or DVD disk (e.g., for making backup disks). However, CD and DVD disks are not as durable or reliable as hard disk drives. Software is also available that allows users to copy image files from a CD or DVD disk to a hard disk drive and then access the contents of the image files from the hard disk drive. If the hard disk drive crashes, however, the user can no longer access these image files, and accordingly cannot be used for bootable image files (e.g., for installing the operating system).